Pix of Texas Thunderstorm

[slaleman]

Originally Posted by FastFerrari

Nice pics.....ive always like storms....i mean the real ones that envolve lighting like the ones youve been able to capture....i have one question....how did u get a lighting strike when i only happends for a second...i havent tried to capture one....just wondering if there is a tecnique i should know about.

I have a Pentax digital SLR (professional-type) where I can set the exposure time, or just hold the shutter open. I had that setting available on my little powershot too, but it was difficult to use. I tried a bunch of things with that storm from setting the exposure time to 30 seconds, putting it on "bulb" setting, which allows you to hold the shutter open for as long as you want. I also had to adjust the aperture on the camera...if it was too open, I'd let too much light in and wash out the picture. Close it too much and the lightning didn't show up. I also had the camera on a tripod so the image wouldn't shake.

The settings that worked best for me were to leave it at "bulb," with the aperture set around 9-10, then hold the shutter open for 5-7 seconds...less if a lightning bolt happened along in the first few seconds I had the shutter open. At 5-7 seconds, the camera processed the image pretty quickly (it takes a lot longer to process the longer the exposure is, meaning more down time and more lightning strikes you can potentially miss while you 're waiting for the camera to do it's thing) and I was able to move into the next shutter cycle fairly quickly. I missed a fair amount of strikes because of waiting for the camera, or the strikes happened out of the view range.

Overall, though, I'm really happy with how they turned out. I had done this sort of thing once before with a 35mm camera, went through 2 rolls of film and got one good shot. With the digi, it's a lot easier to see how your settings are working out and adjust them on the fly.

Sorry for the long post...just like sharing what I know...